OER - the debate has widened. September 25, 2010
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When this discussion began I wondered if it would be limited to higher education establishments - and those largely in the "high-bandwidth" world. I need not have worried. It is reaching much wider.
I appreciate all that Wayne said, and what I am learning from all contributors here, and Neil's recent summary.
Ref Wayne's point that "This represents a change back to the core values of education, namely to share knowledge freely."
I echo that, but I wonder how much providers of higher education are able to see themselves as collaborators, sharing knowledge freely, or how much they have to see themselves as in competition - competing for funding, students etc, (and what impact that perspective has on OERs). I wonder if those of us "outside" the formal HE system have greater freedom.
Neil is very positive about collaboration and fundamental reform, saying for example that "it is interesting to note the growing number of Deans and academics who see an 'OER-oriented approach' (snip) as an opportunity not to get cheap content, but to undertake fundamental, and desperately needed, curriculum reform (snip) and commitments to regional consortia of Universities working together to overhaul programmes using open licensing frameworks (snip) special approach needed will be for the OER
movement globally to look more carefully at the shifts happening in developing world universities (snip) rather than simply seeing as OER as a process of setting up an institutional repository to make 'our' content available to the world as a kind of marketing or corporate social investment activity.
There has already been reference to the music industry and disruptive aspects of ICT regarding file sharing etc, and there are huge discussions going on (not just here) around issues of intellectual property, copyright, public domain, competition and collaboration, etc. It is arguable that OERs are not just an add-on, they are part of much wider changes.
NB Anyone interested in possible futures, based on collaboration, may like the book eGaia by Gary Alexander (NB he wrote it while he was a lecturer at "my" much appreciated UK-OU ). EGaia is available free of charge as an e-book or can be purchased as a traditional printed book. http://www.earthconnected.net/earthconnected/eGaia.html (I recommend it because I appreciate the way it influenced my thinking.)
Dick and Wayne look at existing additional systems for delivering education. Dick brings the example of Peoples-uni (http://peoples-uni.org ) which utilises OER and offers affordable accredited post-graduate courses outside the higher education sector. Wayne points to the inclusiveness of WikiEducator. He notes that the number of potential HE students who are not able to be part of the formal HE sector far outnumbers those who can be part of it. .
It seems that we are not just looking at how OERs might impact on the work of educators and students within the existing higher education system. We are also looking at how OERs may impact on the higher education opportunities of potential students who, for one reason or another, are not included in the present higher education system. They are increasingly turning to the Internet as an alternative. (I include myself in that number as I have a BA but not a higher degree. My postgraduate studies, related to ICT and education, have all been done through a mixture of practical work and self-directed Internet-enabled studies. Obviously this means I have no accreditation, and no formal feedback on my work, other than comments from my peers online and off-line, but I do have access to knowledge and I appreciate how much I have been able to learn. Such opportunities were unthinkable before the Internet.)
Thank you everyone who has widening the discussion to include those of us not in the formal HE system.
Pamela
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